National Briefs

BALTIMORE (AP) -- A United Methodist minister who had a sex change operation will be put on a temporary leave of absence while the church reviews an internal complaint against her.

The Rev. Rebecca Ann Steen, formerly known as the Rev. Richard Zamostny, was a pastor in Rockville, Md., before the 1999 operation.

Bishop Felton E. May of Washington, D.C., discussed the complaint against Steen, which could take months to settle, in a closed session at an annual regional meeting. No details of the complaint were released.

The Rev. Dean Snyder, a church spokesman, said the denomination's policy requires a clergy member to be placed on a leave of absence while church officials decide if an internal complaint is valid.

Conservatives have separately lobbied against giving a new pastoral appointment to the minister. Mark Tooley of the conservative Institute on Religion and Democracy was disappointed the bishop has not addressed the issue of transgendered pastors.

The United Methodist Church, the nation's third-largest denomination with 8.4 million U.S. members, bars practicing homosexuals as pastors but has set no rule on transgendered pastors.

Dispute settled

PROVO, Utah (AP) -- Brigham Young University agreed to settle a federal lawsuit filed by business professor B. Michael Pritchett, who said the school tried to force him out of his tenured post and blacklisted him.

Terms of the settlement were not disclosed.

Administrators at the Mormon school accused Pritchett and other professors of viewing pornography on university-owned computers, according to the lawsuit. The administrators would then offer to let a professor "resign from BYU and waive all legal claims in exchange for approximately one year's salary," the suit alleged.

Pritchett also said he was "blacklisted," a practice several current and former professors also described for the Deseret News. By their accounts, administrators blacklist employees who publicly question school policy, air gripes or study issues considered taboo.

The university, operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has denied or disputed Pritchett's contentions.

The American Association of University Professors censured BYU in 1998 for alleged academic freedom violations but this did not affect accreditation.

Join boycott

CLEVELAND -- The Cleveland-based United Church of Christ has joined an economic boycott against another Ohio city: Cincinnati. The boycott campaign resulted from the fatal police shooting last year of an unarmed black man that provoked days of rioting.

The denomination wants members to shun the city for business meetings and leisure activities.

Church President John H. Thomas said the boycott "is important to pressure leadership toward meaningful change."

Boycott leaders are demanding millions of dollars for inner-city programs and fairer treatment of blacks by police.

Cincinnati officials in April signed an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice to tighten police policies governing use of force, enhance training and create an independent agency to investigate complaints of police brutality.

The Union of Black Episcopalians canceled plans to hold its national convention in the city this summer and entertainers Bill Cosby, Wynton Marsalis, the Temptations and the O'Jays have canceled performances.

The Holy Family Shrine, a 48-foot glass Roman Catholic chapel open to people of all faiths, opens in a few weeks atop a hill overlooking the highway.

"This is a place to get away," said Omaha architect Jim Dennell, a parishioner at Omaha's Christ the King Church, who designed the $2.2 million chapel and worked with other Catholics for almost a decade to build it.

The chapel, with views of surrounding hills and fields, has limestone paths and gardens. Inside, a spiraling water sculpture symbolizing the shroud of Jesus drips into a circular pool and an 18-by-8-foot pane of glass etched with images of the Holy Family is placed above a 1,400-pound limestone altar.

The Omaha Archdiocese is not involved but has given the shrine its blessing, Dennell said.

Future plans call for building a retreat shelter and a residential village on the surrounding 23 acres.

Military TV station?

GUATEMALA CITY -- Aides to President Alfonso Portillo say the military's television station is likely to be transferred to the Roman Catholic Church.

Portillo announced in March that the station would be turned over to a non-governmental organization, not sold to a private company. He wants to create competition for a Mexican businessman who owns four TV stations with national coverage.

"We would like to give it to the Catholic Church as a way for civil society without access to the media to participate," said a secretary to the president.

Evangelical Protestants, with 26 percent of the population, already operate a television station. Guatemala is 70 percent Catholic.

Boosting relations

CHICAGO -- The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is trying to boost Jewish-Christian relations with a new booklet, "Talking Points," meant to facilitate discussion between Lutherans and Jews.

The idea for the document grew from of a 1994 Lutheran "Declaration to the Jewish Community," denouncing the reformer Martin Luther's "anti-Judaic diatribes," which contributed to the Holocaust.

"We express our urgent desire to live out our faith in Jesus Christ with love and respect for the Jewish people," the declaration read.

Among the topics are law and gospel, difficult texts and Jewish concern for Israel.

The ELCA Consultative Panel on Lutheran-Jewish Relations finished drafting "Talking Points," at a meeting last month. Publication is expected by the end of the summer.